Minihack - a slightly different G5 case mod.

Posted 11 April 2013 - 07:06 AM

MiniHack

InsanelyMac Legend

Donators

641 posts

Gender:Male

Looks llike you are doing the exact same thing I did with my PSU. I also reused the original G5 black sata power cables and Molex because it fit, it was original and did exactly what I wanted it to do. Again, I wish ida had that rivet nut tool then, or at least within driving distance to your place to borrow all your cool tools.

Long drive from Wyoming to Yorkshire.....that's something I'd like to see.

I am following two of them on eBay, but I want first to compare the price with the shop next door. I will then buy one .

Posted 11 April 2013 - 01:15 PM

MiniHack

InsanelyMac Legend

Donators

641 posts

Gender:Male

Indeed, I have noticed this too. That's the one I will afford.

When buying the nuts separately it pays to read carefully about the different types. You can buy short, long, open and closed types. They come in different materials and with different "grip ranges" (thickness of material they fit into) as well as having different base diameters. I needed ones that were as slim as possible so I could use them as inserts in my ATX shields.

The ones I bought were like the M3 type shown in the attachment. I bought 1,000 of them for about £40. ( Might be more than you need......)

Posted 22 April 2013 - 08:58 PM

MiniHack

InsanelyMac Legend

Donators

641 posts

Gender:Male

So, just a small update on this slow thread.

I'm constantly re-thinking what to do with this mod and which direction to take it in.

I think I may be changing the back of this case (and will cut an acrylic sheet or at least a cardboard sheet tomorrow to show what I mean) to move the IO shield further across the back towards the door side. I am thinking of making that move maybe as much as 2cm across.

If I do make that move then I will abandon the rear single 120 fan and instead go for a single 92mm fan.

I know this sounds a little backwards at first, but there is some method in my madness.

I will be mostly getting air into the case from the front and, expelling it through the roof mounted radiator, so what is the point in having a large rear exhaust fan when the CPU is going to be water cooled?

The main reason though is cable management and also making this into a case variant where it could be used for an awesome,dedicated "proper" water cooled case. If I do that, then what is the point in leaving room for a large air cooler when one will never be fitted? And what is the point in a large fan at the back if I want the air to go out of the roof? No point at all....

So by moving the IO closer to the door, I can make a full width/almost full height motherboard tray that is a false back. Then there will be a space of around 2cm behind this false back and the case outer wall. And because the case outer wall is actually removeable too I can not only route any wires I want to behind there, but also with a full water loop conversion I could have full sized water cooling pipes behind there too.

Potentially the new design could even have pipes that exit the case at the back, underneath the PCI-e slots and go to a rear mounted reservoir. I can also have pipes that appear from/disappear into modified G5 PSU casing to go the shortest visible distances to the CPU block.

Another idea I am playing with is making the non-door side of the case be a G5 door too. I have a scrap case that I have taken the door frame out of and having done a little checking it would not be too hard to mount it to have a double door G5 with a discrete little front mounted latch lever underneath my fan controller bay so that the second door can be readily opened for cable and pipe work maintenance.

The more I think about it the more it seems to me that without too much extra effort I could make this project take an interesting extra direction.

Maybe I should just stop thinking about this and get on with it so you can see what I mean.....

Posted 22 April 2013 - 09:43 PM

Baudouin

InsanelyMac Sage

Members

419 posts

Gender:Male

Location:Brussels, Belgium

Interesting, your thoughts . And as you say, it's time to go into action. I know what you mean, sometime you have to move first and think again later on.
I'd like to see your performance with the G5 case double deck-doors and the pipes coming out and in. That makes me think to finally couple my two cases together with the double watercooling wires.

Posted 23 April 2013 - 01:51 PM

So here are the pic.s of a (another) prototype G5 back which moves everything more towards the door side to leave room underneath the IO area.

Fan replaced by a single 92mm one from the original G5 with original grill.

The large holes under the mobo area are big enough for large water pipes to be routed through or for panel connectors (maybe quick release?) to be attached for that. The small holes in line with them are 4mm holes which allow a variety of choices for mounting brackets for cylindrical reservoirs of any desired height. I've also included mount holes above and below the grill so that a shorter tube reservoir like a 150mm tube could be positioned there if wanted.

Edit: Just realised I should have put a couple of tube holes underneath the grill too in case pump to be mounted on the PSU cover.....oh well, next prototype.

Posted 27 April 2013 - 04:08 PM

After lots of measuring with bits of card and paper I have made up the first try at a full width motherboard tray for this.

The tray is cut from 5mm black acrylic (too shiney I think!) and is to be positioned for cable and (potentially) tube management.

I went full width but not full height as I need to get the PSU case in and out easily and want that to be able to be done without moving the motherboard.

So, this is me putting in the fixings to hold the tray:

I used rivnuts (of course!) to go through the existing inner case holes.

Unfortunately on their own they did not give me quite enough room for cable management behind the tray and then with these standoffs attached (5mm) the tray interfered with what I wanted to do with the front IO. So instead of cutting another hole in the tray (which I think would have caused a weak point) I swapped the 5mm spacers for a 2mm nut fixing. Not ideal, but it would give me about 6 or 7mm of cable management area behind the tray.

Needless to say in working out all of this my tray was removed, and re-fitted what seemed to be a dozen times.

Here is now a front view with tray and a mobo fitted for size.

The mobo itself is raised 22mm above the tray and gives plenty of room if I should ever decide to use the area under there for running watercooling pipes. I was initially a little surprised by how tall it was from the tray but that is just a consequence of building in those 12mm holes between IO shield bottom and where the backplate meets the case edge. There will be no big air coolers in this G5 and it has to be water all the way!!!!

After fitting the mobo in position it was time to look again at how the PSU case will work.

I drew onto the case top the best positions for the ATX to emerge and the CPU power connection and then cut slots in the top so they can come out of the case and run into the correct positions with as little cable protruding as possible.

Then it was on to do a bit more cable routing to work out the management.

The SATA cables go to the right area, but I want to find some right angled cables that will stack on top of each other - anyone know where I can find some?? - then I can make a closure to cover up most of the cable hole here.

The enclosure variant I'll be using now is this one:

I like the matt black sides and think it will fit the build interior nicely.

Here it is trial fitted.

When it is finally in position it'll sit on the custom PSU cover plate and be screwed in to the power supply left hand top screw. It will also be fixed to the mobo tray by some spacers to both keep it steady but also add strength to the tray itself.

There is quite a lot of room to the right of the hotswapper and in fact it could be used for two more fans - or maybe to internally mount a reservoir if I ever get the cash and hardware desire to move from the Kraken x60.

Finally, here are some more views of the front IO as it is now.

]

I worked out the fixing to the tray and also to the internal standoffs so that brings a potential kit a bit closer. However, the decision to keep the front switch and LED combo is not necessarily a great one. While the intention is to allow a flush mounting option that looks a little more original than some, the soldering of the tiny switch PCB is a PITA. When doing that part of the mod I lifted the trace to the + side of the LED and then had to wire the + of the LED direct to the front side of the board. It was stupid of me, but one small slip can easily trash this little PCB.

The pic above shows the front IO as work in progress. It will be JB'd in place from behind and then it could be given the front flush plate treatment, but for my own industrial look for this mod I will probably stick with this:

So it is coming along.

Decisions at the moment are that in the absence of any sponsor for using their water cooling gear in my case it will keep the Kraken X60, I also will not be putting a "door" behind the mobo tray and prefer the idea of a clean side to it. Once the cabling is in place there won't be much reason to open up that side and in any event with the new panel design it will only be a few screws to undo to get to it. I will though be sticking with my "door in a door" ideas for the opening side.

Posted 27 April 2013 - 09:31 PM

Then it was on to do a bit more cable routing to work out the management.

The SATA cables go to the right area, but I want to find some right angled cables that will stack on top of each other - anyone know where I can find some?? - then I can make a closure to cover up most of the cable hole here.

My suggestion would be a right angle and a 'left' angle plug - the 'left' being a 270 rather than 90 turn. The right angle going down, the left angle going up, then fold the cable back on itself. Assuming you have a pliable enough cable (monoprice has some good Sata3 and 6 cables that aren't super thick and are pretty cheap) you'll just have a small bump going up. To use the stock G5 HDD mounting I had to use one left and one right angle cable because one went up and the other went down. Only took me 5 different combinations to get that all correct!

Two questions:1> Was it required to cut the TeslaConverter case to get the cables out because of the MB height? I think you did a good job of cutting very little, but now you have a raw metal edge rather than the folded metal edge that was there originally - Not as pretty (that's minor) and a potential area to catch and/or cut the sheathing or the cables inside (that's major).2> Are you sticking with black plastic parts for your final build or are these just templates for metal pieces to come later?

Overall looking very sharp and progressing nicely.

PS - I got my NixieTube fan controller in - now I just have to figure out a way to use it w/o modifying my case - it can be done!!

Posted 28 April 2013 - 07:39 AM

MiniHack

InsanelyMac Legend

Donators

641 posts

Gender:Male

My suggestion would be a right angle and a 'left' angle plug - the 'left' being a 270 rather than 90 turn. The right angle going down, the left angle going up, then fold the cable back on itself. Assuming you have a pliable enough cable (monoprice has some good Sata3 and 6 cables that aren't super thick and are pretty cheap) you'll just have a small bump going up. To use the stock G5 HDD mounting I had to use one left and one right angle cable because one went up and the other went down. Only took me 5 different combinations to get that all correct!

Two questions:1> Was it required to cut the TeslaConverter case to get the cables out because of the MB height? I think you did a good job of cutting very little, but now you have a raw metal edge rather than the folded metal edge that was there originally - Not as pretty (that's minor) and a potential area to catch and/or cut the sheathing or the cables inside (that's major).2> Are you sticking with black plastic parts for your final build or are these just templates for metal pieces to come later?

Overall looking very sharp and progressing nicely.

PS - I got my NixieTube fan controller in - now I just have to figure out a way to use it w/o modifying my case - it can be done!!

On the SATA cable thing that's a good idea. Thanks.

I am surprised though that with all the low profile dual SATA sideways outlets on the mobos on the market t is so hard/impossible to find someone making SATA cables that work well together for cable management. Seems a pretty obvious thing to do.

On the Tesla case I really needed to cut it to work well for a minimum cable run. I filed the edge to make as smooth as I could and the cover plate I'll make will pinch the cable with a plastic edge so that when it is on the braiding won't come in to contact with the metal edge underneath.

With the black panels at the moment I am not thinking of them being the final finished look, but I wanted to be using something that at least looks nice (to me!) so I can better think about what I might like in the end (does that make sense??). What I mean is I could have saved a few pennies by doing everything in transparent acrylic right now but looking at the case while I am working would not be pleasant!!

Also I am still playing around with different fasteners and everything just to see how different options might look.

Truth be told I still haven't decided how I want the final finish to be. I do like the black and silver look and it may stay. I might see how much it'd cost me to replicate the look with aluminium panels instead of plexi. I might go for some polished aluminium (in which case I may have to strip the Lamptron and polish the front plate. I might go black and white. I might take the hard route and make all the exterior parts flush and then go for a more stock colour. Happy to take suggestions......

I do love the Nixie display. Where are you thinking of putting yours? If there is space behind the front mesh somewhere it'd be cool to have the tubes glowing through it? The radio remote gives a lot of placement options. It is a bit of an expensive toy, but soooooo cool. By the way where did you buy yours from?